[Marc Wielage]

I also tell my clients to give me an AAF (if possible), an XML, and an old-school EDL just so I can go back and try to figure out when and where something went wrong. One of those will generally provide the answers.

[Marc Wielage]

[Piotr Wozniacki] “I read in several places Resolve’s own noise reduction is not as powerful as the NeatVideo plugin I used in Edius or Vegas Pro with great Results. But the Resolve version of NeatVideo is much more expensive than those for other NLEs I used before – so before I buy it, I’d appreciate a confirmation (or denial) about NeatVideo plugin being superior to Resolve Studio’s own algorithm from the expert Resolve users…”
I believe they have a trial version of Neat Video that you can download and run for short sequences. Try that and see how it goes.

Generally, what I hear from people is that Neat Video is very slow but does a pretty good job. You’ll have to decide if it’s worth the investment for the expense and for the relatively small gain in processing power.

[Marc Wielage]

Was the timeline flattened? Are there any nested sequences? Any multicam going on?

I find that the timeline has to be simplified as much as possible in order to go over well from any editing program to any other editing program (including Resolve). It helps to have specific reel names and non-overlapping timecode on every single clip.

[Marc Wielage]

[Daniel Williams] “I understand that, but I was under the impression you can never get the same results from manipulating the Log from scratch, that you can with a 3d LUT that converts RGB values into other RGB values and makes them 709 legal”
Yes you can. You just have to work at it. There is nothing magical about a 3D LUT, particularly one as simple as the Arri Rec709 LUT. All it takes is time and effort.

[Marc Wielage]

[Daniel Williams] “Isn’t the point of calibration to simulate the end user experience? if you are making content mostly for youtube, vimeo, Facebook, phone and macbook viewing, that will most likely not be broadcast, why WOULDNT you trust your Imac5k monitor over your 709 plasma??”
What if the iMac is not calibrated? I’ve seen five iMacs in a row at the Apple store showing the same demo video, and every single one of them looks different. Which would you like to use as a reference? There’s always the possible they’re all wrong (which would be my bet)… just different shades of wrong.

[Marc Wielage]

[Daniel Williams] “What is your process/order exactly? Is it true that you can get Rec709 legal colors from log by just adding contrast and saturation?”
It helps to shoot a color chart (like the DSC or the XRite Color Checker Video) under controllable conditions. Once you have that, you’ll figure out what kind of gamma curve, chroma settings, and chroma/hue settings are needed to get accurate results. From there, you just dial in the look and move on.

You can also use the factory Rec709 LUT and compare that to your own correction. It’s possible to just eyeball the picture and scopes and match it that way, but easier with a chart.

[Marc Wielage]

In addition to what Joe says, the reels I’ve seen of the best colorists in the world don’t do before & after comparisons because they know it’s total BS. So much depends on the nature of the lighting and the photography, the correction is not necessarily making the look. I particularly dislike it when a colorist shows a “Raw” look and then applies several layers of looks on top of that, implying that they’re “saving” the shot by amazing color-correction.

The best colorists I know of just have a resume. Some don’t even have a demo reel.

If you must do a before/after, just export two copies of the demo — one with correction, one without, and then create a new timeline, go to the Edit page, and use the transitions to wipe between one and the other. What gets more complicated is when you need to show layers and layers and layers of different nodes, because you’d have to render a separate file for each layer.

[Marc Wielage]

Somehow, my method has worked for me for a few hundred features and shows over the last few years. Maybe I’ve been lucky.

[Marc Wielage]

Note also you should check the drive speed with the Blackmagic Speed Test utility, and make sure it can handle the camera footage you’re using.

SSDs alone are not necessarily fast or the best choice. I think a RAID is a better way to go for a lot of reasons. I would never try to read and write to the same disk unless it was a very short file, like maybe 3-4 seconds.

[Marc Wielage]

There are lots of different ways to do it. With camera originals, I usually try a “normalizing” node to get a ballpark adjustment. From Alexa ProRes, that would be Log-C. Subsequent nodes change color, level, add windows, keys, and whatever additional looks the client wants. There is no “best” method, and a lot boils down to the circumstances in which you need to work (particularly time & budget).

I don’t think a LUT is necessary, but some disagree and they can work. The Arri LUT generator on their own website is very flexible and does a reasonable job. But you can duplicate the processing of a Log-C -> Rec709 LUT just with the curves and primaries within Resolve. Pay close attention to saturation as well, particularly the Hue vs. Sat curve.